Tamper-proof injection cartridge housing



April 28, 1959 M. DANN ET AL 8 I TAMPER-PROOF INJECTION CARTRIDGE HOUSING Filed Sept. 24. 1956 INVENTORS MORRIS DANN EDWARD J'. LOGKWOOD BY HAROLD S. CLOYD AT TORNEY United tates Patent TAMPER-PROOF INJECTION CARTRIDGE HOUSING Morris Dann, Havertown, and Edward J. Lockwood and Harold S. Cloyd, Erie, Pa., assignors to American Home Products Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Application September 24, 1956, Serial No. 611,487 Claims. Cl. 206-43 This invention relates to a tamper-proof housing for packaging injection cartridges or ampules. More particularly it relates to a hollow generally cylindrical housing made of synthetic plastic material, provided with a series of openings or windows circumferentially arranged and spaced sufiiciently close together to define narrow frangible bridges connecting the body portions on either side of the openings or windows. Preferably, but not necessarily, the plastic material used is transparent. While our preferred form of housing is designed to contain injection cartridges or ampules, the housing may also be used to package other elongated articles such as injection syringes with or Without aflixed needle, lipstick tubes, toothpicks, screws, other small hardware or the like. While the housing is described as generally cylindrical, this term is broadly intended to include oval, rectangular, hexagonal, octagonal and other prismatic forms.

It is an object of this invention to provide an inexpensive housing for small elongated articles which, once opened, cannot again be closed without showing evidence of the previous opening.

It is another object of this invention to provide such a housing permitting limited examination of the contents without opening the housing.

Other objects and advantages will be clear to those skilled in the art from the following description. This description is intended to be illustrative only and not to limit our invention, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims.

The accompanying drawings illustrate preferred embodiments of our invention. In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side view of one form of our housing made of transparent plastic-eg. polystyrene or any one of the commercial acrylate-derivative resins or the 1ike--con taining an injection cartridge-needle unit comprising an ampule filled with an injectable drug, an afiixed injection needle, and a needle sheath;

Fig. 2 is an end view of the from the left;

Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1, and

Fig. 4 is a section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 shows a housing before being loaded and permanently sealed;

Fig. 6 is a side view of a modified form of housing;

Fig. 7 shows a side view of a modification in which the housing is made in two halves joined by a longitudinal seam; and

Fig. 8 is a sectional view on line 88 of Fig. 7.

Our housing, Figs. 1-5, comprises a body 1 consisting of two portions 2 and 3 separated by a circumferential plurality of windows 4 a, b, c, d These windows are openings entirely through the wall 5 of body 1 and are so spaced as to leave between them only narrow frangible strips or bridges 6 a, b, c, d of body material connecting portions 2 and 3 of the body. The length, width and thickness of the bridges 6 are not critical but are so chosen with respect to the physical properhousing of Fig. 1 viewed ties of the body material (as is well understood by those skilled in the art) that they may be readily ruptured by intentional twisting or bending of body portion 2 with respect to body portion 3, but yet have sufiicient strength to resist breakage in ordinary handling and shipping. In housings made of polystyrene, having a diameter of about 12 mm. and a wall thickness of about 1.2 mm., four such bridges approximately 9 mm. long and 1.2 x 1.2 mm. in cross section have been found adequate, but these dimensions may be varied substantially without departing from our invention. For example the length may vary from 1 mm. to 12 mm. and the cross-section from /2 x /z mm.to3x3mm.

Portion 3 of housing body 1 is extended by narrowed portion 7 adapted to receive sheathed injection needle 8 affixed to ampule 9 containing injectable drug 10. One type of cartridge-needle units of this general character is disclosed in Dann US. Patent 2,671,450, Pig. 2, but our housing is not limited to use with this particular unit. Narrowed portion '7 is closed at its extreme end by in tegral wall 11.

The other end of body 1, i.e. the open end of portion 2, is furnished with a separable cap 12 (Fig. 5) which provides access for loading the housing with a cartridgeneedle unit or other desired contents. When the housing is loaded,.cap 12 is sealed in place. This is preferably accomplished by heat-sealing, thus making the cap integral with the housing; alternatively the cap may be cemented in place by one of the commercially available cements adapted for use with synthetic resins.

A somewhat modified form of housing is illustrated in Fig. 6. Here body 101 lacks extension 7 and portion 103 is closed by integral wall 112. Otherwise the construction is the same as shown in the other figures. This form is suitable for packaging injection cartridges such as 109 without ai'fixed needle, lipstick tubes, toothpicks, small hardware and the like.

A modification of our invention is illustrated in Figs. 7 and 8 in which access to the housing for loading is provided by making the housing in two parts 202 and 203, separated by longitudinal seam 204. The two halves are preferably but not necessarily identical to facilitate manufacture. In this modification no separate cap such as 12 is required, but the end walls 211 and 212 are both integral with the body. When the contents have been placed in the housing, the two halves are permanently joined by cementing or heat-sealing and the structure of Figs. 1-4 is obtained.

This longitudinally split, side-loading construction of our housing is, of course, applicable to other modifications such as that shown in Fig. 6.

In all of the forms, the product container is completely enclosed at the ends and the windows are arranged at points where the product container itself provides ample protection for the contents. The plastic materials and the seams used to join the parts of the housing cannot be broken and reassembled Without giving visual evidence that the housing has been tampered with.

The synthetic plastics or resins suitable for our housing are preferably, though not necessarily, thermoplastic and transparent, such as polystyrene, methacrylate and cellulose acetate; however, translucent materials such as nylon, or opaque materials, or thermosetting resins may be used. Whether transparent, translucent or opaque, the contents of the housing may be examined through the windows separating the frangible bridges connecting the two body portions.

When the purchaser or other user wishes to remove the contents of the housing, he merely twists or bends portion 2 of the body with respect to portion 3, thus breaking bridges 6; he then removes portion 2 and extracts the contents. If an attempt is made to substitute a difierent 3 product or material for that contained in a sealed housing, it is believed impossible to do so without so defacing the housing as to make it readily obvious on only superficial examination.

We claim:

1. A tamper-proof housing of rigid synthetic plastic material comprising a hollow generally cylindrical body closed at both ends and divided into two portions by a plurality of spaced narrow axially elongated frangible rod-like bridges arranged circumferentially around the body intermediate its ends and defining a plurality of windows extending through the body portion, the widths of the bridges being but a minor fraction of the adjacent spaces separating them, the two portions being separable by a relative twisting motion which ruptures the bridges, thus opening the housing and exposing its contents.

2. A housing as defined in claim 1 in which the body consists of two parts permanently joined by a longitudinal seam.

3. As an article of commerce, a housing as defined in claim 1 containing an injection cartridge-needle unit sealed therein.

4. A tamper-proof housing of synthetic plastic material comprising a hollow generally cylindrical body closed at both ends divided into two portions by a plurality of axially elongated substantially rectangular windows arranged circumferentially around the body intermediate its ends, the windows extending through the body walls and being spaced sufficiently close together to define spaced narrow elongated frangible rod-like bridges connecting the two body portions, the two portions being separable by a relative twisting motion which ruptures the bridges, thus opening the housing and exposing its contents.

5. A tamper-proof package comprising a housing'for small articles and an article contained therein, said housing being a hollow generally cylindrical body of two complementary plastic parts having abutting edges permanently sealed together at the abutting edges and forming an enclosure from which the contents cannot be removed without breaking at least one of the parts, one of the parts before assembly being open to permit loading the housing, the loading opening being closed by assembly with the other part, said housing when assembled having two portions each having an end wall and side walls extending part way toward each other along the length of the housing, and spaced narrow elongated frangible rod-like bridges connecting the side walls of said portions and defining substantially rectangular windows extending through the body walls for inspection of the contents of the housing, the two portions being separable by a relative twisting motion which ruptures the bridges, thus opening the housing and exposing its contents.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,286,877 Graham Dec. 3, 1918 2,099,783 Whiteside Nov. 23, 1937 2,549,513 Nicolle Apr. 17, 1951 2,659,482 Hoffmann Nov. 17, 1953 2,729,913 Holwerda Jan. 10, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 609,104 Great Britain Sept. 24, 1 948 

